Dicing with Death Episode 015
Recap It is evening outside the town of Bersin. Balrog Blacksteel and his hired guide, Flatfoot, are on the way to "The temple at the end of the world" aka "The Lower Rift". Flatfoot thinks it will take 10 days for a human, but 13 days for a Dwarf. On the 2nd day of the journey in the woods they spot a bear at the base of a tree. Up in the tree is a bear cub. Balrog and Flatfoot avoid the bears and continue on. On the fourth day they spot 7 centaurs. The centaurs question why Balrog & Flatfoot are in the forest. Balrog claims they are camping. Balrog bribes the centaurs with 8 blue quartz crystals for them to leave them alone. On the night of the 5th day while camping, they are attacked by 3 Bugbears. Flatfoot takes cover as Balrog fights. Balrog kills one Bugbears, and the other 2 bugbears withdrawal when they are out of spears to throw. Balrog's breaks his foot, but carrying on moving with a limp. On the 7th day a green dragon flys overhead the two hide from. On day 8 Flatfood acts what exactly is Balrog, as he hasn't eaten in 7 days and keep moving on a broken foot, and his skin is cold, Balrog says he doesn't know and is going to the Lower Rift for answers. On the 9th day, 4 bugbears step out of the forest. They are led by the same bugbear from before. Balrog casts fear on him, and the leader flees, the other bugbears follow. Balrog and Flatfoot change their path to avoid the bugbears finding them when the fear wears off. Later that same day they come across a huge bear. It charges Balrog, but Balrog hits it hard with his mace, stunning it. Balrog then slaughters the bear. On day 10 they arrives at the Lower Rift. The main hall of the temple there are rooms that go off on either side of it, but the the main hall is just this massive crack that runs through a large stone floor. The crack itself is a hundred feet long, and it splits the earth open. Some places the crack is only two feet wide, some places fifteen feet wide, it's very jagged. The stone here is not man-made, if the temple were not here, there would just be a large patch of stone in the middle of the forest. The leader of the temple, an elderly elf named Falmoris, comes to meet with Balrog. He tries to heal Balrog's broken foot, but the healing spell injures Balrog. Balrog explains his situation, and Falmoris has never heard of anything like this before. He asks Balrog to stay for some time so they can find answers, and Balrog agrees. Exp: 3500 (1750 for each class) Total Each Class: 5243 Exp Fighter levels up to level 3 HP +3 (Total 35 HP) Everyone in the order has a different theory as to what the curse is. On the second day Falmoris suggests a ritual to see if the soul has passed on or not, but the spell is typically cast on the dead, not on someone 'alive' like Balrog. The spell reveals that Balrog's soul hasn't passed on, but since he was cursed a couple of months ago, that is usually enough time for the soul to pass on. The result of the spell reveals the soul hasn't gone to Felumbra. After Balrog gives some more details for the temple archives, he leaves the temple to head back to The Pit for more answers. Balrog heads North East towards the town of Rift Watch. 3 days into the journey Balrog comes across the remains of a broken town wagon with dead attacked people around it. There are drag marks like a second wagon was taken from this spot. Balrog follows the tracks to a cave and find an Ettin as well as 12 prisoners. Balrog casts Cause Fear on the Ettin and it flees from the cave. Balrog cuts the cage open holding the prisoners and arms 3 of them. Balrog says he'll try to tank the attacks and asks the prisoners to overbear the Ettin. The Ettin returns and smashes the overbear attempt, knocking 5 people down. The 2 living civilians flee the battle, only 4 warriors remain at Balrog's side. They managed to kill the Ettin. The group collect the treasure and haul it back to Rift Watch. Two days in, they run into a pair of manticores. They ask if Balrog is Balrog, he comfirms, then a 3rd manticore lands, carrying Ferris. Balrog gets onto a manticore and flies off with Ferris back to Ferris's Tower at Black Mist Lake after 2 days of flying Exp: 3100 (1550 for each class) Total Each Class: 6793 Exp Cleric levels up to level 4 HP +3 (Total 38 HP) At the tower Ferris shows Balrog his slaves in cages he wants to turn undead. 13 slaves are moved into a cage at the back of a wagon, and the group set off by road. They each Koldar at the end of the first day. Ferris gets an inn room in town as Balrog watches the slaves in the woods outside town. Balrog chats with some of the slaves, they reveal they were taken from towns east of Black Mist Lake. The next day they set out south from Koldar across the plains and arrive in Ashenholt a few days later. Ferris grumpy about being in the wilderness for those days, goes to an inn and parks the slave cart outside the inn. Balrog stands guard at the wagon. The people of Ashenholt avoid the wagon and Balrog. The next day on the road to Jalleran a wagon full of bandits try to attack Ferris's Slave Wagon. The bandits are executed by Ferris abruptly with a fireball spell. A few days later they arrive in The Pit. It is evening as they enter the town and drive right up to the 200 foot diameter pit in the centre of town that is seemingly bottomless with a pair winding stairway going down the outside edge. Balrog leads the group into the crypt chamber where he was cursed. The pot of gold is where he left it. Balrog explains the process and Ferris orders his slaves to take the cursed gold. The skeleton rises and Balrog takes control of it, then orders it to kills the slaves. The slaves rise up as undead. Balrog secretly takes control of one of Ferris's slaves. Balrog then leads the way down the stairs to 'the Family'. Ferris orders his undead slaves to carry him down. In the chamber Ferris doesn't spot any clues to where the souls are stored, and suggests they are either deeper in the pit or in one of the buildings on the surface. Ferris and his slaves then leave, and Balrog commands the one controlled undead to serve Ferris loyally, and they follow as well. Exp: 1100 (550 for each class) Total Each Class: 7343 Exp Category:Dicing with Death Episodes Category:Balrog Blacksteel Episodes